


I'd Never Run

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, TW: Racism, TW: Violence, another happy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24428494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: “Have you called 911?”“H-he’d want you.” It wasn’t a lie, but despite the fact she was a dispatcher, the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. It should have been her instinct, to get help, but the thought of explaining to the Police exactly what had happened and why it happened... Hen seemed to be the most logical option.
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: Madney One-Shots





	1. Chapter 1

"Don't move, they hit your head really hard." Maddie was still shaking as she knelt beside her fiance, doing her best not to burst into tears as she chewed down on her bottom lip and swallowed the growing lump in her throat. “M’fine.” 

“N-no, you’re not fine, Howard.” Her eyes darted around them, making sure that neither of the men who had followed them from the bar were still lurking around. 

“You okay?” She ignored him as she pulled off her jacket with trembling hands, bunching it up as much as she could before she pressed it against the bleeding wound on his head. The head contusion was the most obvious, serious injury she could see on his body right then, but the image of two complete strangers kicking him as he laid helpless on the ground would forever be burned into her memory. “Mads, okay?” His speech was slurred, his eyes were closed, his face contorted in pain as she just sniffed, and quickly wiped at the tears that had fallen despite her best efforts to stop them. 

“I’m fine.” She forced the words out, as she scrambled to get her phone from her pocket, knowing Hen and the others were still inside the bar. She and Howie had slipped out early after he whispered that they should make the most of having the apartment to themselves, with Amelia spending the night with Mr and Mrs Lee. Neither of them had noticed the fact they were being followed until she was yanked from his arms and pulled into the alley next to the bar. 

The racist terms that had followed and the fact that they had purposely targeted her fiance purely because they decided they didn’t like the way he looked were two things she’d never be able to repeat. A sudden, newfound hatred coursed through her veins before she took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down before she typed ‘help. outside’ to Hen, knowing she’d come running no matter how mysterious the message was. 

“Hit you.” She moved her phone back into her pocket when he mumbled again, “You ‘kay?” She could tell he was only half with her right then, and she used the hand that wasn’t pressing her jacket against the gash on his head, to push back on his shoulders so he would stay put. 

“I’m fine.” Her cheek stung with the reminder, but she had only gotten in the way, when she had hoped if she had gotten between them and Chimney, they would stop. He had taken the brunt of their attack, and she had no choice but to watch, feeling even more helpless as each second passed. It couldn’t have been longer than five minutes before they scarpered, but it had felt as though they had been beating him for hours. 

“Maddie!” A familiar voice called her name and her head shot up, “H-Hen... Hen.” The moment she saw his best friend walk towards them, her resolve broke. The tears fell hard and fast, and she shook her head the moment Hen dropped to her knees beside them. 

“Have you called 911?” 

“H-he’d want you.” It wasn’t a lie, but despite the fact she was a dispatcher, the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. It should have been her instinct, to get help, but the thought of explaining to the Police exactly what had happened and why it happened... Hen seemed to be the most logical option. 

“What happened?” Her hand moved to Chimney’s neck, before she checked his pupils and Maddie could only watch as the woman’s hands made quick work to identify exactly where he was injured. She could see the worry on the medical student’s face, when she lifted up his shirt to reveal the skin that was already bruising, when she pressed down gently, a whimper of pain that broke both their heart’s fell from a still semi-conscious Chimney’s lips before a few tears escaped his closed eyes. 

“I don’t know.” The brunette lied, ignoring the way Hen’s eyes glanced over at the mark that blemished her own cheek, “It happened too quickly, we were mugged.” 

“And they let you keep your phone?” The disbelief was obvious, the way Hen raised her eyebrow as she kept a close eye on the woman. They had literally left the bar barely fifteen minutes before she had got the mysterious message from the woman she loved as a sister. She knew better than to push right then, “Help me get him up, my car is around the corner. And then we need to talk.” 

* * *

"Why can't you just look at me for one god damn second!"

Hen was shouting at her – she couldn’t remember a time that Hen had ever raised her voice even near her, Chimney described her as calm even in the most terrifying of situations. She wasn’t calm right then. Maddie felt strangely tranquil right then, her head in her hands as she sat next to Chimney’s bed. He’d be okay, they had been assured - a few broken ribs, a concussion and a broken nose, not to mention the horrendous swelling and bruising especially to his face.

Maddie hadn’t spoken a word since Hen had driven them to the nearest hospital, luckily the other woman had been too busy on the phone to Karen, explaining exactly where she had gone. Asking if she could gather up the rest of the 118 who had also been inside the bar. Despite being asked direct questions once they had arrived, and then by Athena when _she_ got there, Maddie remained silent. She could sense the increasing frustration of the people around her, she had heard her brother tell them that she did this often when they were kids, she couldn’t even find the will to snap at him.

But then, Hen was shouting at her, and she finally found herself looking up at the woman, seeing a lot of eyes on her. Her brother only looked concerned, as he looked between her and the man laying on the bed, Eddie looked… guilty, she supposed, Bobby just looked as though he was going to be sick (she supposed he had seen Chimney and the other members of the team in hospital way too many times), Athena just appeared to be angry (at her? Maddie wouldn’t blame her, she had just spent the last hour or so completely ignoring her) and then Hen just… seemed overwhelmingly sad. There were tears in her eyes, Chimney’s blood on her top, and her shaking hand finally reached out to gently rest under Maddie’s chin, turning her face so she could examine the bruise that was forming.

“Are you ready to talk to us now?” It was the soothing voice she knew, the affection behind the tone that allowed her to have just a moment of comfort before the guilt crept back in. She had just watched as her fiancé was beaten in front of her and she had just let it happen. She nervously looked at all of the people in the room, knowing each of them loved Chimney in their own ways, knowing all of them deserved to know what happened but…

“Just you…” She whispered, glad when all the men in the room made their way out at the instruction of their Captain. She looked down at her lap when Buck looked behind at her, upset and betrayed by the very notion she wouldn’t want to discuss what had happened with her little brother. She wasn’t ready and she knew Hen would update them the moment she left the room. The moment the door closed, she realised Athena hadn’t left – she should have expected that much of the woman who stood there, arms folded and a stern expression on her face. “We need to find who did this, Maddie.” Was all she said; she wasn’t in her uniform, but Maddie knew she was there in both a personal and professional capacity.

“We got mugged, I told you.” She directed this at Chimney’s best friend, her voice shrill, dripping with tension as though she couldn’t believe that Hen wouldn’t believe her lie. She continued anyway, “We left the bar, two men came out behind us, I didn’t notice them. One of them grabbed me, pulled us into the alley and then they started punching and kicking Chimney, once they got him to the ground… they carried on…” She tried to keep her voice as monotone as she could, but the tears in her eyes were starting to give her away and the way her heart clenched when she remembered the way Chimney had told her to run. And the way he had cried her name when she had ignored him.

“Um, then they took his wallet and his phone and then they ran off.” She shrugged, watching as Athena walked over to her with a raised eyebrow, walking past the woman to cabinet in the corner of the room, “Then, what are these, _Buckette_?” She quickly turned to face her, gulping when she saw very clearly, both Chimney’s wallet and phone in her hand.

Hen sighed behind her in complete and utter frustration, Athena was about to snap, and Maddie was at a complete loss for what to say. Until she heard the distinct, pained voice of the man she loved, “Stop lying.” He chastised her, and her head snapped towards him before she took a deep breath. She watched as both the other women in the room rushed to his bedside, one on each side, the concern and love clear to her. She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek when the tears finally fell. “Maddie.” He wanted her, she could sense his tone, his hand reaching for her before she relented and moved to stand next to Athena, her hand in his.

“I’m not repeating what they said to you.” Her words were rushed, her gaze stubborn as she looked at him, her fingers moved to turn his engagement ring around his finger, finding it easier to have something else to focus on before she spoke. “They attacked him… us I guess, because of what he looks like. They took umbrage at the fact that someone like _me_ ,” She was disgusted, she felt sick, “Was with someone like… like him.”

“Why didn’t you just… tell us that? You didn’t say a word when I first got here and then you lied to me.” Despite the words, the tone wasn’t angry as the Sergeant gently squeezed Maddie’s shoulder, partly to comfort her but also to try and get her attention. It worked, her eyes met with hers, before she sighed, “I just… I don’t want our daughter growing up in a world where… her daddy gets attacked because of who he is. Because who he is, is who she is and…”

She was entirely certain she wasn’t making sense to anyone, but no one questioned her, no one told her she was being stupid. Chimney just squeezed her hand and gave her a small, pained smile but no one knew what to say to her. Until Athena took a deep breath, and looked from Chimney, and then to Maddie, “We’re going to catch those bastards but I need you both to work with me, okay? And that means I need the whole story, not this bullshit you’ve been sprouting.”

Maddie gulped before she nodded her head, gingerly moving so she could sit on the edge of Chimney’s bed, bringing his hand up to her lips as she sighed. For just a moment, she forgot about the two women they considered family, her eyes on his face, as her lips pressed to his engagement ring, “You know I’d never run, right? I’d never leave you behind.”


	2. Useless

“I’m useless.”

Those are the first words he says when Athena finally manages to convince Maddie to leave the room. He’s suddenly left alone with the two women and for a moment, all he can think is how weak they must think he is. He had looked into his daughter’s eyes so many times and promised her that he would protect her – protecting her meant protecting her mother and he couldn’t help but feel as though he had failed her.

He could remember how one minute she was in his arms and they were laughing about something he couldn’t recall, before suddenly, she was ripped from his arms. The image of her trying to get in the way, how she was begging them to stop, before one of them brought his fist to her face and pushed her back. He had watched as she landed on the floor, hard, seen the look of recognition in her eyes when her hand flew to her face. Everything else was a blur.

The two strangers had been completely fixated on him but he had only tried to keep his focus on his fiancée. He could briefly remember telling her to run, only to finally let his eyes fall to a close when he noticed she was staying. For those brief moments between his eyes closing, and the kicks still being delivered, he had thought he was going to die. It wasn’t the first time he had wondered if he would never see the woman he loved again, if he would never get to see his daughter grow up – but those moments had been fleeting, usually in the midst of a large fire, or a building collapse when the reality could be that he wouldn’t make it out alive.

His eyes sought out Hen’s when she gave his hand a tight squeeze, “You’re not useless, Chimney, it was two against one. It was not a fair fight. They could have killed you…”

“The best thing you can do right now is tell me everything you remember so I can arrest them.” Athena’s voice was seething with unspoken rage, “I need to know everything and not Maddie’s version.” He glanced at her in time to see the disappointment on her face – he knew she adored Maddie, she respected the woman which meant the fact that Maddie had lied to her… he’d have felt that disappointment, too.

With a deep breath, Chimney looked between the two women, “Maddie just… sometimes denial or silence is just easier, you know? She needs time to process things in her own head before she can vocalise it, she didn’t mean to… lie. She wouldn’t ever do that if she thought—”

“She didn’t call 911, Chim.” Hen cut him off, “She text me, she didn’t call for an ambulance or for the police.”

He wasn’t surprised – dialling 911 would have come with questions and she wouldn’t have had the answers right away. Plus, she knew him better than anyone, he’d have wanted Hen and not some random paramedic checking him over. “She did what I would have wanted, what I would have asked her to do.”

That seemed to make Hen stand down a little, her shoulders relaxing and her hand loosening her grip. “We were talking out of the bar, we were distracted – you know, talking, laughing about nothing and everything and…” He shifted uncomfortably in the bed, “One minute I had my arm wrapped around her waist and the next she was being pulled away from me, into the alley right outside the bar. We barely made it a few feet… so I know they must have been in there. I know they must have followed us but no one said anything to me inside, we were in there hours.”

It took him a moment to compose his thoughts, the sudden image of Maddie’s terrified face flashing in his head when he so readily followed the two men into the dark. “T-there were two of them, one of them was around Buck’s height, blonde I think, he had a tattoo on forearm, I-I can’t really make it out… his hand is wrapped tightly around Maddie’s arms and she’s terrified. I froze.” That was the moment the tears began to fall, and he found himself looking at his best friend in an attempt to get that memory out of his head, even for a few moments. He wasn’t sure he’d ever forget the moment his fiancée was in danger and he froze.

“The other guy, h-he was taller than me but not much… there was nothing distinct about him. He punched me, hard and the other one finally let go of Maddie.” He thought back to what they said and he gulped, “The things they called me… I’ve heard worse, we’ve both been treated like dirt by some people when we’re only trying to do our jobs but they… the stuff they were saying. They kept asking Maddie why she was with someone like me, and she kept begging them to stop. She was crying and I couldn’t do a damn thing because I’m weak. I’m so fucking weak – they just kept hitting me, taking it in turns, saying the same things over and over again.”

He was angry with himself because he had been terrified too, the only thought that had run through his head when he was faced with danger – was that he had to get home to their daughter. Survival instinct taught him it would be best not to fight back, not to escalate the situation but it didn’t stop the feeling of complete hopelessness he felt right then. “Maddie got in the way, s-she was so brave, so much braver than me. I just stood there and took it, I should have fought back—”

“That only would have made it worse, you know that.” Athena tried to reassure him but Chimney was already too far into his own head, replaying every single moment when he could have done something to stop them.

“The taller one, the one who had grabbed her, h-he punched her and pushed her away. She fell to the ground and I swear, I lost her for a second… she was somewhere else entirely and then I was on the ground. They were kicking, laughing… they were enjoying every second and all I could see was Maddie, sitting on the ground. I told her to run but she only moved to stand back up, she wouldn’t run and I… and then I guess I must have passed out. I-I can kind of remember talking to Maddie, I can remember her pressing something to my head… but then I woke up here.”

He kept his eyes tightly closed, in an attempt to stop the tears from falling, as though he hadn’t felt weak enough already. There was a tightness in his chest, a lingering guilt and anger he only aimed at himself. Why didn’t he fight back? What could he have done differently? Maybe if he hadn’t been so desperate to get Maddie home, their first night alone in months, he would have noticed someone was following them, he would have been more aware.

He had failed.

“M-Maddie, I want Maddie.” He opened his eyes, in time to see Athena practically running from the room, only for the woman he loved so much to replace her barely a minute later. There was a relief, the moment he saw her face and then the guilt once again when he saw the bruise darkening on her cheek. Every passing second felt like just one closer to fully breaking down – he could have fought harder, he should have fought for her. He should have tried.

As she so often did, Maddie seemed to know what he needed even before he did, rushing over to his side as Hen silently snuck from the room, leaving it just the two of them. He sensed the hesitation in Maddie’s body, as she tried to figure out the best way to get onto the hospital bed without hurting him. She didn’t have a choice when his fingers bunched around her top and pulled her as close as he could to the edge of the bed, the tears heavy, his sobs increasing in depth with each one until she scrambled onto the bed.

Wariness was forgotten for a moment, her arms wrapping around him, her hand on the back of his head as he hid his face in her chest. His entire body shook with the intensity of the pain he felt, he gripped onto her top even tighter until he was gasping for air and she had no choice but to pull back so she could take a moment to truly breathe him in. “Tell me what you’re feeling right now.” It was how he managed to pull her down from a panic attack, as her palms rested on either side of his face, her eyes locked onto his.

“Guilty. Ashamed. Embarrassed. Stupid.” There wasn’t an ounce of judgement in her eyes when he spoke, “Hopeless. Useless. Pathetic.” He ran through each feeling that he felt in his core right then, feeling the tension in his shoulders ease with each admission, “And it hurts, Maddie, it hurts so much.”

When she took him in her arms once more, her fingers running down the back of his neck, he felt his eyes close as his breathing returned to normal. “You did what you needed to do to survive and _that_ is the bravest thing in the world, Howie. You did good, you did so good and I am so proud of you, baby. You get to home and hold our baby girl because you are a survivor and I am so, so proud to be the mother of your child and your soon-to-be wife. I am so proud.”

The tension eased, if only a little, his grip on her loosening as he pressed his ear to her chest, and just took in the gentle feeling of her beating heart against his skin. “I love you.”

She hummed as her fingers ran through his hair, “And I am completely, head over heels, in awe of you.”


End file.
